Lock or gang boxes are commonly used by contractors in the construction industry to provide a secure place for them to store their tools safely overnight or during other periods when they are not present to prevent others from taking their tools. These lock boxes typically use padlocks that are part of a locking mechanism which keeps the lid of the box closed and prevents its opening after the tools have been placed within the box and the padlock has been locked. Frequently, the padlock is situated within a pocket such that its body only partially protrudes therefrom even when the padlock is in an open configuration and the shank is substantially inaccessible at all times, preventing someone from cutting it with bolt cutters.
The disadvantage that these prior art lock boxes have is that they all have some of the internal moving parts of the locking mechanism attached to the front panel of the lock box. The resulting structure, which is necessary to accommodate the moving parts of the locking mechanism, creates obstructions that reduce the user's accessibility to the inside of the box for storage and also creates catch points upon which items may get stuck when trying to remove items from the box. Accordingly, there exists a need for a lock box that has a locking mechanism that maximizes the accessibility to the interior of the box and minimizes the difficulty of taking items out of the box.
Furthermore, many padlocks have a key tumbler that is made of brass. Even if the shackle can't be cut using bolt cutters, someone can break into the lock box by drilling out the tumbler portion of the padlock, rendering it incapable of locking the box. Accordingly, there also still exists a need for a lock box that uses a lock that cannot be easily tampered with, preventing someone from breaking into the lock box.